001okay we're going to go ahead and bring the U March meeting of Granny wine School District Board of Education to [Music] order I would like to add ask Miss stock to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance I Al I will take a motion to approve the agenda so move I have a second second are there any objections motion carries that'll take us down to our high school reports and this month we are starting with Brandy Wine High School hello audience and board members my name is Lola fenning and I'm the present here at Brandy Wine high school so unfortunately our vice president Katie could not be here tonight so it will just be me so as you can see Brandy Wine has had a very eventful March so far starting off strong our jobs
002for Delaware graduates program visited a nursing home and played board games with the residents as their service project great job Bulldogs our College and Career Center also organized a visit to Kutztown University for all who applies which serves as an example of brand Wine's commitment to students postsecondary plans our national English Honor Society partnered with the young scholars of hambi Elementary and share their love for books with them by holding a story time what an awesome partnership moving on to our musical as you can see it was electrifying I saw Friday's night's cast and it was so good I had to come back the next night we are so proud of our thespian bulldogs and also brand new wine is all about involving all students as you can see numerous students signing a poster and
003wearing t-shirts as a way to share their support for spreading the word to end the word we love all bulldogs at Brand now onto Sports we had a whopping 2770 students participate in Spring Sports this season we can't wait to see our athlete shot Briny wine is also proud to share that the National Art Honor Society and our culinary Department raised $2,000 in support for the food bank of Delaware through their Super Bowl initiative which is where they sold bowls that they made as well as partnered with someone with an alumni from Mount Pleasant as well as sold sup so great partnership and great great job so as we all know by now BHS knows how to have fun and we did exactly that with the field trip to the bowling alley where we also
004had Duncan was very good lastly we celebrated our freshman with an awards breakfast to congratulate them on their achievement so far as Brandy Wine high school students onto upcoming events Brandy Wine continues to celebrate women's History Month by posting different stories and quotes from women around our school to celebrate them and show our appreciation for them during this also the class of 2026 is having a kid shalen fundraiser on March 24th from 5 to 8:00 p.m. make sure that you present this flyer so that all those proceeds go to them or a percentage of them to conclude bran is hosting a planning your future information session all about planning for college and trade school on March 26th at 6:30 p.m. that is all for brand updates are there any questions or comments from the board
005thank you have a good evening thank you great job Mr can I can I just you have uh Mount Pleasant High School Mr akman can I just add before she starts that um Brandy Wine is having the class of 2025 is having a flea market on May 3rd um and the proceeds will benefit the afterr for the class of 2025 thank you well good evening everyone I'm so excited to return it's been so long unfortunately my vice president Sean cannot be here with me today so I'll be delivering the SCH update alone our theme this month is March Madness as GRE nights have been Here There and Everywhere this past month first we want to congratulate our 11 exceptional All State Choir students Maya Abby Maggie Penelope Angley Scarlet Bridget Alex Aaliyah and thasia sounded
006amazing in the treble and mixed chire fun fact we have the highest number of all state students from a public School this year while they were shining in do I was down in DC as Delaware's YMCA National Youth Advocate during my 4-day trip I met fantastic people such as past RNC and DNC chairs Senator blunt Rochester Senator Coons and representative bride while I was down there I advocated for the Civic Bridges act which aims to connect students and the community on Civic engagement to create social cohesion at the same time more of our Green Knights were at the charter school of Wilmington for the Science Olympiad mind you this team of seven students started only two months ago when a student reached out to Mr aino one of our science teachers with little time they
007went to the competition and they crushed it Mount placed first in the pingpong parachute and placed top 10 out of 60 teams three times earning two medals and oh do we have more awards for you mount mck trial had themselves a time they finish off the weekend in the top 10 with one of our students winning two gbls three of our students winning one gav and one of of our students placing second for courtroom artwork talk about bringing home the hardware while everything on the first side was completed in the same week we spurred greatness throughout the month on the next slide you will see mount's fifth annual Greek night was which was supported by the largest turnout ever it was a night full of stepping singing scholarships and good fun we also had our
008first annual fashion show titled black fashion throughout the decades which highlighted how fashion evolved through music and social movements that's not all our Contra ex students Leighton Jaylen and Wilson were victorious over 10 teams at the ud entrepreneurialship competition winning $500 and a spot in the Limitless World Summit competition in March their business venture pocket wealth aims to make financial literacy accessible for high school graduates and underclassman using AI based Insight finally we choose to include everyday amount believing in the celebration of differences to encourage a well-run community March 3rd through 7th we participated in our choose include spirit with themes such as wearing the disability flag colors and experiencing a different perspective on an outfit swap day additionally our Key Club in blue gold work together to tie-dye socks for rocker socks which supports
009those with Down Syndrome we hope to keep you on our toes for our update we are entirely proud of our students who best themselves every single day we hope you weren't surprised because we sure weren't to tell you the truth every day at Mount is a slam duck so grab some popcorn because April will be another buzzer [Applause] thank you you can have now conquer good evening BSD board members family and staff I'm Magi owski conquered high school student council president and I'm Sam Wagner conquered high school student council secretary for starter conquer's Educators Rising delivered an outstanding performance at the Delaware state conference with 14 students earning gold silver and bronze medals the five gold medalists have also qualified for the national competition in Florida next a newly formed chapter in HOSA a club
010for future health professionals earned a spot in round two of the Delaware HOSA state competition taking place on March 25th through the 7th at Wilmington University our science National Honors Society recently attended the yes conference learning about different science ideas and gaining a stronger understanding of the dangers of a harmful environment next our engineering students are advancing sorry advancing inclusive education in the Brandy Wine School District these talented innovators have been designing and building adaptive physical activity devices for students with disabilities recently conquer visited forward Elementary where students had the opportunity to test their devices our mock trial team competed in the Delaware High School Mock Trial Competition at the Newcastle County Courthouse in Wilmington on February 28th and March 1st individual team gavl awards were given to many students last but not least we
011had our mid-year Winter concert where the band and Orchestra played absolutely phenomenally next slide please last month our student body celebrated Valentine's Day by having a schoolwide Valentine's Day Spirit day along with the student council members filling the hallways with hearts filled with empowering and warm-hearted phrases in order to spread love and kind Spirit throughout our school in sports news all the winter sports have finished up their amazing season and now spring sports are in full swing overall in our winter sports we had over 35 winter sports players make either first team second team or honorable mention overall in the flight B blue hen conference in the conclusion of our winter sports our boy swim coach Matthew Hoops was named diaa boy swim coach of the year and our girls basketball coach coach Jay Haynes
012was named flight B Coach of the Year congrats to all our amazing players and coaches in addition all of our spring Sports have kicked off and we are look looking forward to seeing them compete in the next couple weeks additionally during this month we are celebrating a schoolwide mental health awareness month which we are calling the month of kindness throughout this month our students have engaged in making a schoolwide kindness quilt to help promote unity and kindness throughout our school which will be finished and hung up at the end of this month so stay tuned for the final results furthermore we would like to congratulate our amazing Italian teacher Miss Rossy for being announced as the 2025 2026 conquered High School teacher of the year lastly please come by to support our musical mean girl
013at any show from April 4th to April 6th and tickets are now on sale thank you so much for listening and we hope you have a wonderful evening are there any questions from the board thank you thank you next we move down to recognition we have a community partner Award presented to healthy foods for healthy kids good evening everybody I miss SARS and miss and miss R join us here good evening everybody happy St Patrick's Day glad to see a lot of green out there sorry for those you that aren't wearing green I sorry you weren't green uh tonight the Brandy Wine school district is proud to start a new set of awards the Brandy Wine School District Community partner award this award was created to recognize and celebrate organizations within our community whose outstanding
014support positively impacts our students our schools and our educational Mission the inaugural presentation of this honor we are honored uh this evening to recognize an exceptional Community partner healthy foods for healthy kids with the Brandy W School District Community partner award for over 15 years the uh education cultivation school garden program within our district has made remarkable impact at M Pleasant elementary forward Elementary Lombardi elementary cambi elementary carop elementary and Springer Middle School healthy foods for Healthy Kids provides Innovative and handson lessons tailored specifically to each grade offering our students invaluable opportunity to learn science by actively growing harvesting tasting then tasting the very vegetables that they nurture themselves this experiential learning not only provides not only deepens their understanding of science but also Fosters healthy eating habits and environmental stship what sets healthy foods
015or healthy kids apart is that the pro is that the only program of isit kind in Delaware and it's uniquely engaging every student across every grade in our schools uh that they participate the alignment of their lessons with grade specific science curricula enriches our students educational experiences in meaningful and practic practical ways so we sincerely thank healthy foods for healthy kids for their dedication their Innovation and their significant contributions to our district students and our entire School Community it is our great pleasure to present healthy foods for healthy kids with the brand newone School District Community partner award congratulations and thank you for helping us cultivate healthy futures for all our kids give Round of Applause [Applause] please thank you all thank you that'll move us down to the superintendent report Dr Lawson good evening
016president acman members of the board and members of our audience and Community this month's feature of our student outcomes data which is new to the superintendence report are our most recent results of summi of Assessments in English language arts and mathematics from the 2024 testing year otherwise known as smarter balanced assessment for grades 3 to 8 and the SAT for grade 11 our state mandated summi of Assessments in ela and math evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional year in a standardized format by comparing results against grade level standards the Common Core State Standards in other words smarter and sat provide a snapshot of student learning to evaluate how well students are exhibiting Mastery of our state learning standards in ela and math at one point in time it is important to note
017that these are these assessments are not the sole measure of student learning or knowledge nor should they be again it is one test classroom performance teacher feedback progress reporting and grades and formative assessment measures and results such as the map data that we showed last month also contribute to assessing students Mastery of State Standards let's take a look at our District's results measured in proficiency rates compared to the state of Delaware I want to note that proficiency rate differs signific significantly from the growth percentiles that you saw last month in our map data presentation this first slide shows Brandy Wine school's Ela proficiency rates for both smarter and SA compared to the state BSD represents the dark blue bar on top for each grade and the state is represented by light blue on the bottom
018this next slide is similar but is reflective of our math proficiency rates for smarter and sat again BSD schools compared to the state this last slide shows our District's proficiency performance over time the district maintained higher rates of proficiency in reading and Mathematics before the schools closed during covid the good news is that we are in an on and upward trajectory since returning to school after the pandemic our district success plan outlines specific goals to increase the number of students meeting or exceeding growth percentiles and rates which we featured last month in our M map data but these growth rates and percentiles will when they increase it will in turn increase the proficiency that you see here those rates over time March is recognized as music in our schools month by the National Association for
019music education celebrate with us as we highlight the vital role of Music in our schools We Believe music education is an essential part of a well-rounded learning experience it nurtures creativity boosts academic success and supports emotional expression and Social Development our passionate music educators are committed to delivering highquality programs that Inspire students and Foster a lifelong Love Of Music this month we're celebrating the talent of our students and the dedication of our music teachers with concerts performances and special events we invite our community to join us in recognizing and supporting the achievements of our young musicians March is also recognized as theater in our school's month theater education goes beyond acting it's about storytelling creativity teamwork and embracing diverse perspectives through theater students learn to express themselves build empathy and develop confidence our passionate theater
020educators are dedicated to cultivating these skills offering our students opportunities to explore their talents collaborate and connect with the world in meaningful ways and now this month's Sizzle [Music] video what is that is that its beep or is that part of its colon wait no it's going to be that [Music] I ran EMS before as an so I'm used driv [Music] not you know when people are like oh kids these days they don't know what they're doing they're all in their devices they're not learning these kids are extraordinary stem robotics Foster Lisa lawon and the folks at Brandy Wine School District there's a competition for Talent not just within Delaware not just around the country but literally around the world those areas and those states that win those school districts that win are going to
021be the places that best prepare kids for this exciting technological future Brandy Wine school district is doing it they're turning fear of Technology into power to truly make sure that Delaware is going to win long into the future [Music] ready add [Music] United [Music] States president arrian that concludes my monthly report thank you Dr Lawson that'll move us down to public comment first public comment is Brian Jordan Mr President uh board members thank you my name is Brian Jordan I'm one of the candidates for this year's School Board election being held on uh May 13 when I entered Public School in Delaware was in 1986 which means I was busted from the suburbs into the city under a federal segregation order it was a federal government that was meant to ensure that all kids had
022equal opportunity when I got there I had some great teachers in fact many years later I still remember all of them I've got two girls in the district now seventh grade and fifth grade they face a very different Federal they face funding Cuts uh that could affect the availability of three School meals potential interference in curriculums to eliminate deia Federal lawsuits that could eliminate five fours and IEPs and an effort to stigmatize immigrant communities who attend the schools all of these are negative affects that will affect student outcomes and with my platform running on the idea that a unified brain School District Community is the only thing that can that can change that so we get positive student outcomes that community of course is also the teachers fa professionals Librarians Food Service workers bus drivers
023the SRO of the schools so I'm asking on May 13th that you come out you vote vote for me the platform is uh schools build communities so I hope to see you all out there thank you thank you next I have Tracy Woodson good evening members of the board Miss Lawson I am honored to be here this evening and for those of you that don't know me my name is Tracy Woodson the former principal at Springer Middle School um I was there as assistant principal principal at Springer for 15 years 15 wonderful years prior to that I was an assistant principal at Mount Pleasant High School for six years as was a business education teacher at aapon High School in the red clay school district for five years and an interventionist at formerly uh Andi
024Middle School that was back in 1997 altogether I have 27 years experience in public school education tonight I am here like Brian to announce my candidacy for the school board supporting teachers and improving schools is my platform I don't think there's uh any other thing to uh consider uh supporting teachers teachers in this District that make up this District uh deserve our support um I've earned my bachelor's degree in science and technology from the New Jersey Institute of Technology my Master's in educational leadership from the University of Delaware and awarded my doctor degree from Wilmington University I currently serve on the school On The Board of Trustees at Wilmington University um tonight I want to just thank sha jeed for her exemplary work on the equity committee while on this board and I thank her
025for her endorsement I look forward to everyone coming out on Tuesday May 13th and vote thank you very much next I have uh Frank leoy good evening superintendent members of the school board members of the community my name is Frank Lavoy and uh for 50 years my wife and I have lived in the Briny wine School District uh I taught at conquer high school for 26 years and very happily and both my daughters were educated all throughout the Kate as well through the branding wine schools and two of my grandsons are currently being educated in brw uh one at conquered high school and one at bryone high school why they choose different schools we still don't understand but that's the way siblings go you know sometimes um I've been an educator my entire career not
026only at the school level but at the county and state level I worked at RoR University for 11 years as a old school reform coach and professional and I worked at uh I directed the uh University of Delaware's alternative roots to teacher certification program and so I worked intimately with what it takes to be a good teacher and I constantly had my fingers on the uh the pulse of current education research about what works in schools and what doesn't work and I think I can bring that perspective to the brand new wine School Board as our district it's always been an excellent District but as any organization does tries to become even better better in doing that so um as I said before and and I know Mr Jordan mentioned before there some some awesome
027challenges coming ahead of us and I think it can help us um meet the challenges with the same spirit that has made Brandy Wine a great district for all these years uh please vote for me on May 13th thank you thank you next I have Mr Alex the uh good evening members of the board public uh I am pleased to announce my candidacy for the district a BSD uh Board of Education board seat um again I would also appreciate everyone for me on May 13th but uh I would like to say that the last roughly six months that I've had on this board has been amazing it's been ey opening and I really think that it's been a helpful experience to let me know not only what the district needs not only what the Wilmington
028learning collaborative which I'm also on needs but also just what uh what it takes to be a member of the board to be successful in trying to meet the goals of the board uh I definitely think that one of the things that we're going going to that I would like to have accomplished in the in the future in the next few years uh is greater Clarity and greater information for the parents I think we do a very good job of collecting information I think we do a very good job of having the information available but I think we can do a better job of summarizing it and making things just a little bit more accessible for parents uh in all areas so thank you very much and have a wonderful night thank thank you next
029I have Mr Kyan Wilson good evening good evening everyone uh good evening uh board superintendent Lawson chair and the community here my name is Kenyan Wilson I am uh also a candidate for uh the school board in nominating District a and um ID like to tell you a little about myself and and why I'm running uh I am also a proud parent of uh four children uh all have been through um uh brand JU School District uh two currently in Elementary School uh one in Harland and one in Claymont uh and I honestly can say uh coming from growing up through another school district here in Delaware that um Brandon wi school district is uh honestly the the best District in the state hands down and I can say that uh from experience I have
030a a personal uh friend that we grew up with he struggled in the colonial school district and uh he actually got expelled he was expelled from the colonial school district and came over to uh started at Springer and went on to conquer high school and uh I can say he became a different person all because the environment that U Brandy Wine School District provided and I was I was jealous of that um my my brother end up going coming to conquer to his um his senior year because of that and it really inspired me so what I can say about myself is that U I feel like I can bring um a diverse point of view to the board uh I feel like that um uh we can reach all corners of the district the
031district is a large district and um there are a great number of students and parents that aren't always reached even if it's the great effort that uh folks do everyone doesn't get reached and I feel like I can bring that uh that extended um reach to the board I can reach gaps that uh maybe others haven't haven't gotten yet so there's so much more to say but please uh vote for me um May 13th uh thank you so [Music] [Applause] much thank you that'll move us down to board business uh first report is Dr JY advisory and assessment committee okay good even thank you good evening everyone um so are the advisory andate committee on Equity we met again this month and we are um we've done a lot so far we've looked at data
032we've looked at uh what Equity means within the district and at our last meeting we had the opportunity we brought in the lead consultant from equity and Beyond to talk about the um whole initiative behind the survey and the work that was done around that we also heard from District leaders around um our student voice advisory the um now that I've started trying to go I'm work computer but um the we talked about the Panorama survey and we also talked about the equity and Beyond survey and I'm missing one of them but basically what we're doing the whole idea around the advisory and assessment committee is to look at all the resources resources of the district and look at how we can help make sure that we coordinate those resources and efforts to support the
033aspect of our district success plan that says we want all students across the district to drive so we had a really good meeting last meeting looking at those those four areas and talking about the excellent work that they're doing talking about how we can raise awareness across the District of you know the the the work that's going into those I feel like we have some strong programs that if utilized more fully within the buildings that we would get um we would be able to sort of increase the impact that we're having so the for the next meeting I can't believe it's already going to be April um we're going to talk about how we can look at like communication amongst those different efforts but also across the district and some of the other areas that
034are also working towards that aspect of the uh District success plan and uh look at what dat resources are currently available within the district so we can continue to monitor our progress and what data sources we might need to expand on that's where we are and then in the May the idea the plan now is for May for us to bring recommendations thank you Dr J any questions from the board I move down to the dsba executive committee we met on uh March 5th uh we did have a uh quorum uh we did note that there are 45 from Delaware signed up for the national meeting in Atlanta in early April uh we gave a report U executive director Tull and myself attended the nsba advocacy Institute in February he also provided a referendum report
035and a School Board elections update and our next meeting will be in May on May 7th any questions theba legislator uh yes I was unable to attend the February um however next meeting will be April 2 thank you District finance committee Mr scr uh I was unable to attend this week uh I was attending the All State swim banket with my son but for the for the meeting Mr um re gave a presentation on District needs regarding maintenance and buildings Capital request for CN certificate of necessities and then there was some discussion about future planning um for maintenance requirements on our aging aging buildings um and the just discuss discuss that thank youness so we haven't met since the last meeting our next meeting is actually this Wednesday the 19th at 4M but I did
036want to remind everybody of the April 7th presentation I talked about last month um members of the committee have been working hard on um it will be at Mount Pleasant High School at 6: p.m. and I think I mentioned last month that the presenter um lost her son and ultimately it was determined she's from out ofate but um it was ultimately determined that it was from marijuana overuse is the contributing factor to his death so the the topic of the talk is the dangerous truth about today's marijuana um and I understand that from from reviews that it's people say it's one of the best presentations they've ever seen um so it is open everybody if you have kids especially you should be there April 7th 6m pleas thank you Mr Howard you also attend maintenance
037advisory on that I actually got stuck out of town at work but I have some notes um so the meeting was held March 11th at mayine elementary school the uh committee discussed the status of the facilities assessment tool that was required by the state submitted by Mr Reid there was a update provided on the bidding of summer projects um a review of the upgrades to the high school cafeteria seating so if anybody seen the Brandy Wine High School cafeteria seating the uh other high schools are in que to get similar um more collaborative kind of Booth style seating in the other high schools which is very well received at Brandy Wine and then there was discussion similar to the finance committee about the potential resubmission of requests for Capital funding to the state the next
038mten meeting is April at high school thank you Mr H parent and citizens advisory committee Miss St yes um we have our last meeting of the year is going to be in this room on Thursday um at six o'clock we will provide dinner and child care and transportation too as well um and you know obviously I just encourage um those from the community to you can reach out to me I can connect you with the administrator school um and uh our topic is going to actually be information about the district's uh career pathway which even those um members on our planning committee and chairs were not even aware of all of all the offerings that we have as a district so I think it's going to be um very informative um and and we expect
039to have a really nice uh live uh discussion and information Shar thank you parent counsil for students with disabilities so I was not able to attend there was a meeting on um March 3rd the meetings have transitioned a little bit as we have been in the process of um hiring a new director of special ed who happens to be here with us this evening so introduce Dr H to everyone so um hopefully once uh Dr gets her um feet wet a little bit more since today is her first day um she will uh you know tackle the the the meeting schedules and and the um the plans for the parent Council for students with disabilities um I moving forward so there is a meeting scheduled for um May 5th um it is here in the
040multifocus room um from 5:30 to 6:3 thank you Wilmington learning collaborative Mr JY yes we had two meetings since our last board meeting one on February 18th and another on March 13th and we have another meeting tomorrow night as well uh the three things that we have been focusing on the first is the uh continual uh search for two principles for uh two schools within the wlc that search continues progress is being made I want to say about 18 to 20 potential candidates have been selected so that process is ongoing and it's uh meeting the timetable that has been established uh the second aspect of what uh we've been progressing with is what we would call visions and values we were working with a team of uh organizers who help school boards to get better
041and they have set up a situation where we're going to be going out into the community in groups of two um and talking to community groups doing community outreach for the next month to try to establish a better rapport with with the community and try to understand more about what the community wants from the lton learning collaborative and the third part which is in conjunction with that is uh more of a broader question and that is trying to determine what the rman can learning collaboratives Authority and or you know sort of their their ability to affect change within the schools is especially compared to the districts themselves So eventually it's going to have to come down to the willing to learning collaborative working with and discussing with the districts who addresses what aspects of the
042schools within those districts and uh how that gets determined so that's a longer term goal but that is something that is going would have to be addressed and probably be discussed tomorrow as well thank you wmph advisory uh wmph advisory committee met on Monday March 10th CTE teacher Mr wishingrad reported that he has three full units of ninth graders who are in the middle of interview month um where interview local artists and journalists level two class is making BSD playlist uh where employees throughout the district come in do a recording pick some songs talk about the music and the reasons that they pick them one full unit of level three is working on journalism ethics official media sponsor station the official media sponsor of the prom spring Musical and synergies I think we mentioned last
043month the submission for the do approval the broadcast journalism pathway that has been uh fully accepted by the Department of Education so that has finalized an articulation agreement withington University that's in process now pending signatures now that we will have broadcast journalism pathway as the station continues to uh evolve for today's times we talked about over the last several months just the way the program has evolved um special thanks to Dr Michelle Kut and Charles Schneider of pleasant high school for the help in getting the broadcast journalism pathway approv station ran 247 throughout the period with a small exception on Saturday November 16th where there was a Del Marva power outage um w.net is making some revisions getting updated streamlining content uh a lot of student produced content is being uh you can find it
044on the podcast page at w.net Mr wish gr also reported there are 13 different prepared news features in the Delaware press Association uh High School Communications contest we should know next month what if any and how many of our students won awards who've had great success uh over the past years um ask Mr wish to keep us Clos so we can recognize any winners at a future a meeting we got a chance to take a look at some of the equipment that was donated uh from and repurposed from wdv in do that uh has kind of changed Direction uh kind of in the process of thinking where that equipment may go um but it's good high quality even if it's used equipment we're appreciative of that gift um last finally I did inquire about asking
045what the cost would be to get the licensing for the spring musical broadcast over the radio last year's Disney Frozen it was quite expensive being Disney all um but I think with all things that are old being new again I think there would be a really neat vintage aspect to here play broadcast on our very own radio station so we'll hear more from that in the future future and our next meeting is tentative for Monday July 14th um details will be posted on the district website as well as w.net until then tune in to Super 917 wmph they do they have all those demograph demographic information listen range um I know the last check it had increased over the last three years um but I can locate that information put it in BO for the
046board to see it might may even be posted on W thank you Mr Scot are any additional reports from board members um yeah I do have an additional report uh so a couple weeks ago I was able to visit T middle school and um I don't know if were able to the anxious generation about um the connection between um aise and spike in uh mental health um issues especially for our young people and smartes and um it certainly has gotten a lot of the community parents um Educators talking so I was really curious to see especially as an administrator of the middle school I was really curious to see how T middle school because um I don't remember the name of of the of the um of the packets the magnetic uh Pockets um and
047I just wanted to see the process of how they did that um they have enough magnetic pockets for every student but what was really nice I really appreciated um this I thought it was very thoughtful um as he said that you know our our purpose is to win the war and not necessarily ble and one thing I really appreciated was um you know I felt like the staff was um the administration team was very thoughtful and who they placed in the front doors to greet all the students there was a couple of points of Entry um they had uh for you know for for it was all inclusive of one price um for uh there to be the magnetic pockets and and these fins and um as this came in they were F I think
048this is really important they were first breeded warmly and uh made to feel like that was the most important thing you know thank you for you know we're so glad to see you uh it was a it was very very warm welcoming uh to students and then uh students were you know handed the packet um of the pocket they could take it and do it or they didn't have to but there wasn't a struggle in terms of oh no you have to do it and and turning into a lot of back and forth power struggles first thing which I think I you know I agree with Mr law I think I'm beake actually to you know open up every morning uh with that um what he said which I am not surprised by that the
049sixth graders have the best buyin um the eighth graders maybe don't have in at this point just because it's procedure for them but certainly there were quite a few students uh the majority of them who certainly didn't put their cell phones in the magnetic packet and then um then throughout the day then um what ends up happening is that students have cellone out then an administrator something be called to the room the student is then graded um with a pocket and then the student would the in pocket and then there's last there's 18 magnets um different places when the students leave uh and then the students can swipe their own um pocket return it and get their cell phone and he said there's really no problem with that are very motivated to to do that
050uh and to leave the building um so uh that that you know wasn't quite as interesting to see as as uh coming in so um so uh T was the first school to write the grant with District help uh to to get that done I believe the plan is starting fourth Market I think be very interesting good luck Springer uh starting that fourth marketing period and then um PS will be starting in in the fall so um I think that I just think it's really interesting uh obviously I applaud Umali School first uh being very thoughtful um in their approach not making it a power struggle and making that a fight for students um but again still having the the desired effect which is decreas behavior decreas some of the things cellones have been uh
051really especially middle schools so um curious to see like in all of the schools and then um then I don't know maybe we will think about what would look like in schools thank you Miss T any other additional board member comments yes thank you president um so Dr Woodson and I actually went over to Springer last week I think 11 the week before and I want to commend Dr Sterling because they actually had a town hall to engage parents to get parent feedback about what you know what their concerns were and sharing that information so I really thought that was great for administration to actually engage the families to see how that was going to work so they're going to implement in fourth marketing period I wanted to share a um very briefly I had
052the opportunity I think I mentioned this at another board meeting before but on Friday I went uh down into the city there's a a fabulous partnership between lumbardy um Randy Wine high school and an organization called safe United neighborhoods with the Wilmington Police Department and at least once a month the people from both schools as well as this organization um walk you know through the neighborhood and it's a way to visibly show our support for our students and families in that Northeast Community we have a number of students who are being you know coming and commuting to our schools to school here and it's just a way of us showing them that it's not always about them being on a different territory to be able to get that education so I just wanted to promote
053that uh Sarah Greco who I believe is at Lombardi um is is the one who sends out the information so if anybody it's open to everyone anybody can come walk actually had the opportunity to take my son with me last Friday so uh and Pastor Ben is our our contact down in the city while I was on that walk I had the opportunity to meet with a representative from Mom's demand action and she she told me about a program called B smart Secure Storage it's a national nonpartisan it's an educational campaign and it's really launched to raise awareness about how people can secure guns safely in their homes and we know that when we safely secure guns um that it saves children's lives and as it starts getting warmer sadly every year we see um
054incidents of gun violence go up um unfortunately for those of you who know me you know that I recently lost a brother to gun violence in fact tomorrow is a preliminary hearing in Philadelphia um that was not related to someone not storing a gun safely but uh preventing gun valid is something that's very near and dear to me so she talked about how two other school districts within Delaware have publicized the information about the smart smart secure program on their website and I really would like to present it and hope that BSD will consider it because I believe that if we can get this information in front of our parents to constantly remind parents that there are easy ways the um the organization they provide both literature as well as they come out and they
055often will table and provide gun locks for parents so it was something that I learned about while on that walk because as we know sometimes in the city in different communities not just in in the city boundaries but in many um communities that gun violence is an issue that affects our students so I wanted to bring that up thank you Dr J let move us down to the consent agenda I will take a motion to accept the consent agenda I have a motion and a second are there any objections to the consent agenda youing or roll call please yes yes thank you that'll move us down to Personnel matters we'll start with the Personnel monthly report and I have a motion as discussed executive session are there any objections to the Personnel monthly report motion
056carries move down to employee matter 25- 013 can I have a motion on that please so move do I have a second motion and a second are there any objections to employee matter 25- 013 motion carries uh I'll take a motion on employee matter 25-17 second motion and a second do I have any objections on 25-17 motion carries employee matter 25-19 can I have a motion second motion then a second on 25- 019 are there any objections or exensions motion carries employee matter 25-20 can I have a motion please motion and a second on 25- 020 are there any objections or extensions motion carries that'll move us down to student maners I will take a motion for student matters A and B Choice good cause invitations and denials approve I have a motion and a
057second are there any objections or abstentions that'll move us down to Old business and we're going to start with the revised Title 9 policy M McIntyre this may seem like de Shabu for board members we just um voted on this recently but uh things change yes B good evening to everyone uh to president uh Mr acan Vice President Dr Jed superintendent Dr La the board members to our community members and guests as well as those online with us this evening um my name is McIntyre and I'm here to revisit the Title Nine uh policy that the district has on April the 19th uh as you may recall 2024 the United States Department bed released new title 9 regulations that were to be in effect as of August the 1st of 20124 our board with some
058discussion and clarifications voted to adopt those new regulations however following a recent Court ruling uh the United States Department of education's office of civil rights made a determination that they would enforce Title 9 under the previous Title 9 regulations uh that were effective from 2020 not the 2024 new regulations that the board voted to adopt so I am here tonight um asking that as a result of that decision that we um go back and vote to adopt the former regulations which are now the regulations for Title 9 from 2020 that the United States Department of Education is is saying is the only title 9 regulation that is enforce well let me get a motion on the floor first and then we can get a second and some discussion interested we have a no I will
059take a motion I have a motion do I have a second second motion and a second some discussion so and this is the result of the current is this the result of the current federal Administration roll back some of the language that um some of the protections that were in the updated um title Yes actually there was a decision on January the 9th by the US District Court for Eastern the eastern district of Kentucky that vacated uh all of the regulations rendering it inapplicable um and illegal in all jurisdictions and it was around the language of adding the gender identity pieces and so then the Federal Department of Education agreed and determined that we would only operate under the regulation um my question would be and my thought would be say um is it's not
060directly related to to whether we vote for this or not clearly we don't have chice um but is if there the board will revisit at another time if there are any protections within within this policy that would provide protections that the updated um Poli or title n policy was intended to provide additional board comments um my question is that says the to a conduct that occurred prior to August 1st 2024 yes that after August 1st if conduct occurred today how would that so right now in their regulation uh the Court's decision and I quote the Court's decision did not directly address which regulation would apply to Title 9 investigations that may arise between August 1st 2024 and January 1st of 2025 so that's something they're still working on we don't currently have any um pending
061investigations for that period of time so our district is okay where that is concerned but anything um from back to 2024 inclusive of now would adhere to those regulations from January 1st 2025 on would be this regulation again what you're saying no they're they're actually saying that everything um that was previously done from August 1st 2024 is now gone and the only regulations that dictate how the process of Title 9 is implemented goes all the way back to 2020 from 20 all the way up to until they may look at it again changing again so I'm so the policy that we're approving that you're looking at yes so we just need to remove that language that says that conduct occurring prior to it's now correct cor can I thator thank you to approve this with
062the removal of the line it says conduct occuring prior to yes would am to was that they didn't whether app a and janary what what they didn't determine is if any investigations arose during that time how those investigations might be handled we don't have any that came up between that time so that's not issue for the district and from our attorney's perspective the US Department is still working that piece out does it apply to when the in occur or when the report was because if inci occur between that time that we' not have not yet reported if we remove this line would it then you know I mean people have of time reped and when the in OCC that is a good question change and remove that language so yes let's let's think about this
063for a second so applicable to conduct occurring prior to August 1st 2024 would be any conduct all the way back to the 2020 regulations that occurred during that time but I believe what Mr heler is saying is that because it's it's not just prior to that date it's also now after that date um and this line was originally put in when we had the two when we had the four August 1 and then the after so I think we're fine removing that line um I I think you removing the date in our document yes doesn't change the applicable law that's in place correct so then I would amend my motion to approve policy change as presented with the removal of the little parenthetical applicable to conduct occurring prior to August August so we got the
064Amendments and the motion any additional board discussion if not um I would just say I would say one thing that um obviously um you know I I know there's a question of whether or not we have a choice or or do not have a choice um however I know that it has been brought up um and I know that board members have been asked or or questioned um whether or not we need to have a policy for the district that would protect or would address safeguards um for students staff um gender identity um and I do think it's something that we need to think about I think that we need to address um I know other districts are both very you know within the state out of the state um do have uh policies that
065when there are some questions that at least you can go back to uh what what does the district policy say um so it's a little bit clear about about some guidance um it's um we don't we you know we we have a district success plan that one of our tenants is on equity and um you know I want to encourage the district to the course uh what we are doing it is one of the most important things uh that we can do um in terms of if we want to talk about where we need to improve scores and uh it's it's it's it's all tied uh uh to a lot of those answers are in equity and what we are providing for our students so I just want to encourage the to just you know
066continue we have a district success plan um I know that it's been um difficult um in education recently in terms of lots of questions lots of changes lots of um not just through funding but but other things I've had um employees come to me and ask me if they can now be discriminated against um it's a terrible thing these are some of my best teachers in the building they affect hundreds of families and students in here um I so I just want to encourage the district um we have no choice we have a choice I don't I I guess I'm not I don't know but um we still have a moral choice can I just add to Bo pilot 6.01 as a student policy but lists the protective classes as race ethnicity color religion national
067origin sex gender sexual orientation genetic information marital status disability age gender identity or expression and other characters by I think that's refering to yeah this is this is and so I think what I was talking about and I think is that us thinking about it further in terms of how we would implement it if previously our vle for implenting it title if we no longer have that that we put some more and it it may already be covered terms ofs are forers St it may be there in general language and so I guess we can visit specific um to each class how handle but um I think it's come up before even especially when we were talking about immigration laws and policies and and publicly um establishing something in terms of how we would operate
068within our school buildings I think this is the first um a very clear indications of how some of these policies are going to our students and our communities and we can't just continue to sit and say it's going to work out like we need to be we need to take some very clear definitive steps to establish policy that may be some tough conversations it may be hard to say we're going to stand against things that are happening at a different level but I think we owe it to our students um and it's written in our district success plan we think we owe it to ourselves because nobody care about math and reading proficiency if they're afraid of being discriminated against based on their gender identity or if they're afraid of being discriminated against they or
069if they're afraid that somebody's going to come into the building and take them out because of their immigration status I think it it's this is a clear indication that we need to move as a board on some of these some of these issues and we've never had to deal with it before so it may take some hard conversations to say since there's no precedent what do we do but I think the time is over for us sitting and saying oh it's just DC let's wait see happens it's happening also um board policy 4.02 covers employee nondiscrimination so we've called it out in both places I think we're beating a dead horse here at this point um but I will say that all students and staff should always feel safe in our schools we should be
070accepting of everybody so I have a motion and a second with the revised policy are there objections or abstentions roll call please yes yes thank you and we move down to the facilities assessment tool document evening board uh people at home and people in the room I hope my presentation doesn't bore you and put you to sleep um part of the Department of education's requirement for the um compliance with Senate Bill 277 Sen cill 270 was enacted to make sure that um buildings receive school districts receive proper um maintenance funding proper approval of Capital Improvements and to make sure that um an incident happened in another District where building had fallen into extreme disrepair to make sure that this never happens again I'm not sure that that this tool gets us there but it's still
071requirement I'm just going to go through the document tonight is a first read I will be sending the document out to the board to review it's a lot of stuff and then I'll be looking for approval in the March um this is March in the April meeting next slide please um everybody when you look at a document you go right to the bottom line This document has no bottom line but I did the math this is apparently the replacement value of our buildings this is as they stand so if a building has turf fields they get replaced with turf fields if the building doesn't have turf fields it gets replaced without tur Fields I'm just making a comment I don't agree that conquer is far less to replace in other schools but this is what
072the information when you put it out this is what it um when you put it in this is what it spits out next page please um the document is extremely it took roughly 16 hours per school to produce um um it has a tab where there's generic building information then there's a whole document on good repair so it describes a system such as Windows are there minor issues moderate issues or major issues I don't know that that really hits to it but that's what I had to do um then there's a modernization section which gives you a score so if your school district has energy star appliances in the teachers breakroom you get points for that but it didn't seem to have a lot of um root in a lot of real world scenarios but
073it SP spits out a score this is just one page of the facility's life cycle assessment so in other words each item different types of roof have a period of time that they're supposed to last in here it gives a square footage to replace in there for roofing it says Roofing is $26 a sare foot our last bid was $3 I can't change these CS I can't update them we're going to have a bid opening next week for new roofs at T Middle School I have a real sensus to what Roose cost um but I'm listing Roose as an example um for anyone in high school has 29 roofs this document has one section so it doesn't get to the root of what's going on next slide please the district has to have its own
074plan the state gives no recommendations how to produce it um working with Bill oh handland we fully agree that this should be a public document put out first school so parents see what their school is so we give a generic description what was a school designed to be what is it when was it renovated when we additions put on and just in plain English a description of the building Brandy Wine High School is a very well built building it's been renovated over the years we do have the ability to dehumidify we do have the ability meet the codes we do ventilate but I make a statement in here that um a child in a wheelchair can't get to the locker rooms the school was designed by the same people who gave us split level houses
075so if you go in the gym you open a door some doors go upstairs some go downstairs some kind of go to the left some kind of go to the right um that is not a maintenance repair that is a capital Improvement um so what I do is I go through Brandy Wine High School in excruciating detail I go through it the way the industry bids things site work electrical canical finishes minor cap money we're not allowed to use minor cap money to buy furniture furniture is not a 20-year asset but I put it in here people should know the furniture in some schools it's 35 years old in other schools it's 5 years old we should budget for that classroom's worth of furniture is $9,500 classroom to replace the lights for LED lights now
076that we have um smartboards in the front of the room it's critical that the teacher be able to dim the lights just like M did here on the side projector so we don't get glare and you can see it that's $99,000 per classroom this report has all that in it next slide please um I know Roofing is boring that's just an example there are 29 areas of brand high school next slide please from Google Earth you see the different colors some of the roofs are 5 years old some of them are 30 years old but this document next slide we go through in detail of each area the square footage when it was put on when it will um expire when it has to be replaced and what the cost for square foot is next
077slide please and at the end everybody always takes a good document goes to the bottom over the next 10 years if the expense doesn't hit in the next 10 years it's not included in the report over the next 10 years just for maintenance the expenditures of brone high school is $7.1 million okay that's high it's an old building buildings we just renovated cambi brand new micar brand new Claymont just renovated the expense will be much smaller and major Capital Improvements I mentioned the locker rooms there are what would Define as major Capital Improvement $14 million worth of work that would be good to do a brand new in high school in our CN we proposed roughly 4 million there you can't do everything our taxpayers can't afford it um our kids deserve better our schools
078are clean they're beautiful what happens in our schools what is important in our schools is what happens in the classroom we just provide the environment but if the environment becomes a distraction wonderful things don't happen in the classroom I had the pleasure of meeting with high school students the other day a high school student here in and I talked to them about the cafeterias and the eyes lit up um this is also about quality of life so I hope as a district we can continue to fund quality of life issues by also doing the issues that aren't as exciting but replacing roofs boilers and the other things are essential to make sure that our class and our schools are healthy uh Cil 270 has a lot more to it it's um they're going to regulate
079for the first time humidity is not of building um building code installing systems in school that regulate humidity is not building code it's not part of the codes that we have to abide by there are districts out there with brand new buildings multi hundred million doll buildings that cannot monitor or affect humidity we can in all our buildings but free so I will identify that I'll identify what the cost would be to make those changes but as Cil 270 hits there aot lot of reporting measures there's a lot of compliance issues I think our District's in good place but we want to keep it that way and what supposed to happen with this funding tool is I did a little bit of research this funding tool was created by not only an out ofate consultant
080but an outer country consultant it was created by a French consultant who when we had the zoom meetings the zoom meetings had to be delayed because the person was on the west coast so I started diving into it because I think I'm spending a lot of time with no results turns out Maryland used the same assessment tool so I looked up on their website Mar Maryland school construction.com the Statewide facilities assessment I'll send it to the board and it's like cherubs are going off in my head as I watched this little video as they presented to the school district it's great to have a report but you got to close the loop what Marilyn did is took this report and put it into a program and spit out results spit out the scores my report
081doesn't have scores in it because the cells are locked I don't have a score Maryland scored it and what Maryland is doing with this information is they identifying districts in need or identifying deficiencies the deficiency as it impacts teaching and learning a pothole in a parking lot does not impact teaching and learning a hole in the roof does impact teaching and learning there's a score Maryland then spits out priorities and then they come up with Solutions that's our Solutions so I am hoping that somewhere along the line in Delaware that we do what Maryland did and do the last piece I'm going to do some investigation I'm going to make some calls there's a lot of changes at Department of Education but what I got over the past two years is they don't know what
082they're doing with the report it's a lot of information you have to visit the schools we're not that big of a state we have 220 schools Statewide smaller than some counties in Maryland counties in New Jersey you can visit the schools you can kind of get a sense of what the needs are but I'm hoping if they do this right um we took the report seriously um Spotlight Delaware did an article about what we found and and I think if that guides maintenance and that guides the future Delaware right now more maintenance fundings goes to brand new schools with turf fields than older schools where we are pushing the the student population down to provide more services and if we continue in this way I think the disparities between the halves and Have Nots will
083only grow so I'm hopeful that the final Loop will be closed um but as I said I will bring this next month to the board um it's a lot of reading if you have problems sleeping you're welcome to read it all but I'll present it to you and as I said we always go to the bottom line but I will give a 10-year plan of what we should be investing in our school not what we are questions um I wonder I wonder top maybe not I don't know it might have to it in a way that weed don't and the inequity yeah we sit in a room that's beautiful but it's hard to believe that right around the corner there's a 94y old room the three mechanical units that condition this room one's not working
084um cafeteria don't know how much longer that's going that's why we made a capital request now we will get it working for next year but there gets to be a point you have to keep on doing Capital work we're retiring quite a bit of debt we should continue to go now the state's finances are in a way that we're going have to respond to that they we may be getting a a very hard no this year and there gets to be a point where we need to have real conversations it would be nice to do these things but there's going to be some things where the rubber meets the road where we're going to have to speak to our legislators and say you can decide not to build a new school you can't decide to
085not fund older schools because if the roof starts the then damage occurs so a dollar spent today can prevent $20 spent tomorrow and I don't think it's fair to our taxpayers like I see on social media people say I pay enough in taxes I shouldn't have to go to referend to replace a I agree so we are trying desperately hard to do most of that work without going to Capital re I took the maintenance committee to Maple Lane this week that was a building renovated 30 years ago walk through it it's beautiful I know some people say it looks not everything was built the early 60s roof everything in there if you can touch it probably replaced it in the last 10 years yes we got more work to do substantial work to do but
086I'm very proud of the fact that we've been able to keep up if we're not able to get a capital refer here in future don't get State approval that's when things can start looking a lot different we really don't want that can I just can I interject and just say this um Bill 270 um did it have any fiscal node attached for your hours and time put in No in fact it has if we decide a lot of our schools have dehumidification programs we don't run I'm glad our new CFO is in the room he's going to let the air out of my tires but if we start running those programs like we're dictated to the energy impact would be $300,000 there's 17 days of the year where human can be a problem in the
087school and we we're pumping fresh in our school and when it's 74° outside 100% humidity your air is not running your heat's not running we're dumping humidity in school we can pull that out at most of our schools but the bill will go up so if this is what we have to do this is what we have to do but in the fiscal note it said the district should be able to you prepare this report I I will print I will send you a copy because the Bill's been revised several times but it made pretty pretty strong languages that the districts have funded follow up how how many hours would you say that you and your team um took to complete a lot I I get you the hours later but it's a lot these
088are also hours that could be spent actually fixing things but the one thing I didn't do is P conss I guess my point in that is that hopefully that the actual outcome of the report is useful to us and not just something that's going on a shelf to prove that someone is what I asked before um what's the plan B I mean like I'm I'm looking at this and I'm looking at the numbers and I know that you are the best person who knows in terms of what our buildings need and all of that um but if the money is not there right looking at at what's happening with the Department of Education looking at what's happening with funding that's being having to be reallocated like what is our plan B and is there a
089point when the district and the board starts looking at different ways to fund some of these needs like I don't know if there would be the finance committee but you know do if the money is not coming from tax dollars down and over what do we do and and is there a plan to start looking at um other ways I mean maybe it's just me like I feel like Negative Nancy today but I'm looking at the news and I'm looking at the fact that money is going away not coming to us so at what point and this is probably a question for the board as much as it is for you but like when do we start looking and um it sounds like you are prioritizing already like where the money would need to go
090first but are there other ways to get funding like like what what are we going to do well I'm I'm a glass half B kind of guy um that our district went to our taxpayers years ago and asked for more money here just for maintenance and just for fields and it's not a lot but our taxpayers voted and we have our operating money money that we use for maintenance that aren districts to the north I actually everybody's to the south of us but to the left and right of us don't have and when Jill was here she was very pleased to say because she came with perspective from another District that on the local side we have supplemented um I'm going to get a t-shirt that says thank you Deborah Hein but um she augmented
091minor C this year which more into maintenance which greatly helped out the district now I'm of the Mind maintenance funding needs to be targeted in other words when a brand new school opens why should they get maintenance dollars when everything's brand new if that's something we could talk to our legislator about but I find just having good conversations with people and we have a lot of new people in power in the state and I think having conversations um I mean we see 450 million being spent on two votex schools you know so it's it's also got to be an issue of um will there's got to be a political will and there's got to be I just think conversations um we have a brandy wine has a lot of people with a lot of power
092attending our schools who are doing the positions and I think having a cup of coffee with them in conversations because everybody wants to say it needs to be about more money I'm not of the mind that it needs to be more money just needs to be spent in the right places and then I'm hoping that this the state um I'm hoping they can see their ways um through on our CN now that's also why we at the maintenance committee um we initially had asked for $211 million to do quite a bit of work but we're retiring a referendum that was 141 million if we lowered our expectations and changed a few things not saying this is what we do it's something we could if we could get a CN we could put out a referendum
093telling taxpayers there's no tax increase it's just not a decrease now will that mean things have to be brought up the table yes does that mean the new school we wanted build site things like that might have to go by the wayside and come up with the plan yes I think we're trying to look across the state and say it's good enough for if it's good enough for them it's good enough for our kids I think our kids are attending Sports and they're seeing our fields and then they're seeing what they see South now and I think that that's something that as a state not just brand new Mone we've got to we've got to tackle do you feel like as some of these decisions where large amounts of money are being moved from things
094like special education and students with special populations and things like that as money is being removed people are are looking at how they have to reallocate things you think that that's going to become a challenge as we start making decisions between well do we move money that we would have spent on football fields to now putting it in some of these areas that because at the federal level funding that supplemented some of those programs has gone away you think that's going to be a problem my my world simply facilities and I'm a person who hates that seeing money come from anywh else the state had this program where you could go debt to do improvements of schools through the sustainable energy utility I was very much against that because that debt want to same money
095paper reading teacher so a lot of what we've done whether people know it or not the energy Bills going down 47% of Claymont I'm hoping pays for another reading teacher so I think what our goal has always been is to keep as low as possible on the operating side to put people in the classroom to teach kids and there's a format in Delaware by which you do schools and our debt expense in this district has been as high as 10 million it's very low here and I think our community has been extremely supportive so being a good District being a district that promotes facilities use when a community believes they own the school they support the schools and I I've probably taken up too much of people's time tonight but I just wanted to give
096you a first read I don't want this to be Doom and Gloom because I look at what Deborah effort into this year we would have gone into this summer with 1.4 million we're going into the summer with 2.9 and that's because we have somebody who's listening who's talking to the bond Bill and is making things happen so once again I'm going to get the T-shirt thank you deorah for I'll wear it with the tie maybe next month but there are people who are listening and there are people are making good things happen and probably not listening but she is thank you thank you Mr re and the homework for the board now is to read that report in full for the next meeting please do not so thank you very much let to move us
097down to the uh draft policy on crisis response Dr mckenny good evening president mman vice president jaged superintendent Lawson members of the board those of you who are assembled here and those of you who are joining us virtually my name is Dr Yolanda mckenny and I'm here tonight to present the first read of the district's crisis response policy as required by the state leg legislature with the passage of House Bill four this bill is also known as Nolan's law and it reads in an effort to create a more standardized approach for the occurrence of a school connected traumatic event this bill charges each school district and Charter School to establish a detailed crisis response policy that must meet a minimum number of required policies and procedures the purpose of this legislation is to provide more
098Behavioral Health supports to school districts and charter schools in the aftermath of a school connected traumatic event which is defined as the death of any student educator administrator other building employee of a public school this legisl legislation also requires the department to cover the costs of grief counseling offered to students for up to 30 days after school connected traumatic event so I'm here tonight with the first read you have received a copy of the crisis response policy and the accompanying plan for your review and I will be back in April for your final approval I'm happy to answer any questions and if I don't have the answers I'll do my best to get them for you I have one question don't we do this already now we do currently have a crisis response team in
099place um I don't believe that all all districts did and so the the reasoning for this bill is to make sure that every district has a crisis response team and a company I thought we did that's why I'm asking want to highlight the fact that we're already doing this yes we are I have two questions comments okay um one would be thank you by the way for the work that you've done to create this policy you're welcome um one my first comment would be to move the um definition of school connected traumatic event over to the policy from from the legislation to the policy so that it's clear within the policy the purpose of the policy okay you hear me oh sorry can you hear me I did but you can you can say it
100again I don't know if everybody else could I could cuz I'm standing right I said I suggest to move the definition of school connected traumatic event over from the um Bill to the policy um so that it states the purpose of the policy um the definition of traumatic event I also um I found some inconsistencies in the draft policy um to make sure that it aligns with District titles with Brandy Wine School District titles okay so student services director I looked on our website I I couldn't come up with any title for student services director it's not a role that I'm familiar with within the district um so I also felt that there is the plan directs building level at administrators to contact the culture and climate director um to report the incident but then
101identifies other incident commanders so it doesn't seem consistent in that way and it's probably meant to be a different maybe I I was a little confused in how that that person who that person would be and I just felt like kind of more clearly defining that okay so very simple um suggestions I think but otherwise I thought it was a great um policy thank you anything else so is the first read we're not taking any action an opportunity to have some of those updates made and we'll come back again next month and Dr M you can come back and tell us changes updates thank you thank you so much thank you so we are down to the monthly financial report and this month it's Mr make sure I call that out because last month I
102almost had J here ear so I apologize I could have done it last with the help of Angie though uh good evening president a vice president Dr J superintendent Dr Lawson board members and audience members uh the finance item on the agenda this evening is the approval of the February 28th 2025 monthly financial report the district finance committee met on March 12th to review this report they provided their approval of the figures that are presented to you tonight um on the revenue side of things everything is pretty much right where we would expect it to be and everything is very comparable to the same time period for the prior year the only item of note is at the bottom of page two page two the Child Nutrition revenue is well ahead of where it was
103last year and that's thanks in large part to the efforts of the Child Nutrition team to increase student participation in the program I believe they are breaking their meal serve records on a daily basis at this point moving on to the expenditure side of things and feel free to stop me if I'm moving too quickly but everything is pretty straightforward this month thankfully um looking at the top division one and division three salaries are 65.5 obligated in total uh this figure still does not include the retro pay to the teachers we anticipate the retro pay will appear on the April month end report the payroll department is currently working on this it's a very manual process they have to pretty much calculate and touch the pay of every teacher that we have in the district
104um so it is very timec consuming but they are cranking through it we can move down to uh the there is an overage on the student Support Services line that's Midway down the page it is 108% obligated this operating unit has picked up a lot of uh Esser expenses that were coded to aner account prior years it's something that we'll definitely look at going forward to make sure that we budget appropriately for this in 2026 the remaining expenditures on page three and the expenditures on page four are all in line with our expectations there's nothing really unusual or out of the ordinary and then finally looking at the prior year appropriation expenditures on page five there are no major changes from previous months items that still have large cumbered amounts are due to a variety
105of things it might be because the state provided 2025 funds in the 2024 appropriation line where the funds are used for projects that spend multiple years or the funds have a a longer spend out period than our 12 month fiscal year that concludes the presentation for the February 28 2025 month Finance report is the carryover still on track to meet projections I didn't see that uh it should be yes PRI appropriation expenses no that's all the way usually at the very end it shows month to month and it shows us the end of the year what we're going to carry into next year only pardon okay well let's put it back in because that's something we like to watch I like to watch I will take a motion to accept the financial report subject to
106audit so motion and a second are there any objections or abstentions motion carries thank you so much Mr general information board Workshop will be on March 31st if board members have a particular topic uh we're going to be delving into some student data a little more deeply but if you have something else you'd like us to cover please drop a note to Dr Lawson uh the regular board meeting for April will be April 14th here at Mount Pleasant and then the May meeting will be May 12th also here at Mount Pleasant with that I will take a motion to adjourn salute you have a question that special meeting like I thought we only had workshops since there was like a special was there been on the calendar for a long time yeah I know but
107I'm not a fan of not having it's not necessary there something specific needed for that if we don't find enough interest we cancel okay that's all okay I have a motion and a second on adjournment all those in favor please say I meeting is J thank you